Once a byword for the worst excesses of overtourism, Barcelona now aspires to be a role model for other cities that once put all their eggs in the tourist basket. It is reinventing itself and reclaiming public space for the city’s residents, starting with its most famous boulevard, La Rambla.

“The crisis has exposed the weakness of a model based on one economic sector, tourism,” said Jordi Rabassa, the councillor for Ciutat Vella, the oldest and most-visited part of the city. “La Rambla is the centre of this economic monoculture, and we’re working towards bringing local people back to the city’s most emblematic street.”

He added: “Ciutat Vella can be a role model of how to move from a monoculture to something more diversified that employs and caters to the needs of residents through creating jobs in culture, technology, ecology and sustainable initiatives.”

Tourism accounts for around 15% of Barcelona’s GDP, but in Ciutat Vella it feels the entire area is dependent on tourists. Many businesses haven’t reopened since the March lockdown, many never will and the latest lockdown measures will be the kiss of death for still more. To rent signs are proliferating throughout the city centre.

When it comes to discussing what has gone wrong, no one disputes the diagnosis; what is surprising is the unanimity about the cure. Everyone, from politicians to private investors and market stallholders agrees: culture is what will lure Barcelonans back to La Rambla, the street they long since abandoned.

“If we want Barcelonans to come back, we have to offer them something they like and that interests them,” said Fermín Villar, president of Friends of La Rambla, the local residents’ and business association. “We have to offer cultural events, from high culture at the Liceu opera house to popular culture.”

This may sound utopian at a time when Covid-19 has forced theatres to go dark and music venues to close. However, in what feels like an exercise in social archaeology, the absence of tourists has revealed La Rambla for what it is – or was – not just a seething mass of souvenir hunters, but a boulevard home to three theatres and an international opera house, an art and photography museum, several music venues and the offices of the Catalan ministry of culture.

The flagship of this cultural revolution will be the grand Teatre Principal, which opened in 1603 but has been closed since 2006. Now a consortium led by local businessman José María Trenor has raised €35m to refurbish the theatre into a multi-function performance space hosting hi-tech immersive experiences, concerts and other events.

“The aim of this project is to create an experience that can become a destination in itself,” said the project’s promoters. “We want to become the immersive art centre of southern Europe. A place to learn, to discover and interact. An experience for adults and also for kids where art and content go hand in hand.”

Mateu Hernández, CEO of Barcelona Global, a nonprofit organisation representing more than 220 businesses, universities and other institutions in the city, was optimistic. “Once the city understands that the culture industry is also an asset for tourism, we will be able to convert the Teatre Principal into a new attraction for residents and visitors alike,” he said. “The regional government also plans to convert the Foneria de Canons, an 18th-century gun foundry on La Rambla, into a cultural centre.

Both Hernández and Villar believe that what is needed is a public-private consortium dedicated to revamping La Rambla, as similar bodies have done with 42nd Street in New York and Madrid’s Gran Via. The risk here, of course, is that the sordid gives way to the bland, with seedy bars reborn as Starbucks.

Meanwhile, an urban plan drawn up in 2018 for remodelling La Rambla has been dusted off. It envisages expanding the pedestrian space, linking the boulevard to the adjacent barrios of Ciutat Vella and el Raval, and creating a green space at the end near the old port. But with Covid-related costs draining the public purse, it’s not clear where the council will find the estimated €400,000 needed to carry out the first stage of the plan.

Before it all but sank under the waves of tourism, La Boqueria, one of Europe’s finest food markets, was the heart of La Rambla. The market has stood on this site for 180 years and it too is having to reinvent itself.

Santiago Capdevila, president of the stallholders’ association, said it has to respond to the laws of supply and demand, while trying to preserve its character. “Tourists buy charcuterie, saffron and olives, but they don’t buy fish,” he said. But now the charcuterie stalls that expanded their operations have had to lay staff off.

“It has never been a barrio market,” said Capdevila, “because La Rambla has never had many residents.” (It had a mere 680 at the latest count.) La Boqueria’s strength, he said, is that it sells products you can’t find anywhere else in the city, and this is what he hopes will attract Barcelonans back – now they don’t have to vie with the crowds.

Barcelona prides itself on its gastronomy but there are few establishments on La Rambla where a discerning diner would choose to go. According to Villar, however, Barcelonans have never gone there to dine. “They used to come for an aperitif in Plaça Reial and then go off to eat somewhere in the barrio,” he said. And with mass tourism, they stopped coming altogether.

Rabassa said restaurants and other businesses will have to make themselves attractive to local people or go out of business. “If they think they can survive this crisis using the same model, they haven’t understood the situation,” he said.

Everyone agreed that rents are too high and have to come down to attract residents and commerce. The obduracy of landlords, most of them local people, and their refusal to lower rents even as tenants are evicted or businesses go to the wall, remains one of the ugliest features of the pandemic.

Before the virus struck, an estimated 100 million journeys were made along La Rambla each year. The the street is, above all, a business, said Villar. He added that quality tourism shouldn’t be confused with who spends the most money. A stag party swilling overpriced pints are spending a lot of money, but aren’t the sort of visitor the city wants to attract.

“What’s needed is control – control over alcohol, drugs and the sex trade,” said Villar. “If we don’t have that, we’ll end up like Tijuana. We need respectful tourism. We’ll know we’ve won when someone on TripAdvisor says: ‘What a lousy city – you can’t buy alcohol in the street’.”

Hernández agreed: “The opportunity is there and it’s urgent. If we don’t do it, someone else will. Barcelona has the opportunity to show that famous streets such as La Rambla can survive the pandemic through private-public initiatives that are compatible with both local and global needs.”